I don’t like to write specifically about political parties on this blog. I prefer to stick to exploring liberalism vs. conservatism. But I just have to say what a huge disappointment the Illinois Democratic party has been for me.
What, again with trouble getting it together on the budget? Never mind Blagojevich and all of his troubles.
As I think I’ve written before, we moved back to the Peoria area just six months ago. We lived a little over a year in Naperville, but for several years before that, we lived in Michigan.
When we lived there, Michigan had a divided government – Democratic governor, Republican legislature. (Now the Democrats have the House, too.) I don’t know if it was this divided power that did it, but it always seemed to me that the disputes between the two parties highlighted their ideological differences. Policy and budget issues helped people understand who and what each party stood for.
In Illinois, the Democrats have it all. When we moved here, I thought it would be great to see what an all-“Blue” state would be like.
It turns out that single-party rule leads to all of them chewing at one another’s ankles.
Very disappointing.
P.S.
I’m not a political scientist, and I don’t have a deep historical understanding of Illinois politics. There might be other reasons for all of the trouble with the Democratic leadership in Illinois than single- vs. two-party rule. All I can say – returning to what I hope is the emphasis of this blog – is that I don’t hear Democratic leaders talking up the general liberal worldview as they smack one another around. Nor do they help forward what I see as a liberal value – fiscal prudence – with all of the budget games.
Bill Poorman 